THE DROUGHT CONTINUES.

Apart from one and a half day's respite the dry weather has lasted for six weeks and all the late spring flowers are enjoying the sunshine. Shade loving plants and early spring bulbs however are not very happy and are starting their summer rest. This is much too early and I am afraid some of them may not have built enough energy to flower next spring.

A temperature in excess of 24 ° C over the last few days have exasperated an already bad situation and has brought forward a lot of summer flowering plants and forced others in premature dormancy.

Frost has been forecast for next week and if this materializes the result could be disastrous with all the soft growth that has been produced over the last few weeks

Watering has become a twice-daily chore with the pots drying out fast and temperatures in the shaded houses even with the circulating fan turned up full, reaching over 80 ° C

While the Cyclamen have decided it is time for a sleep the primulas and Lewisias are having a ball and the flowers are in pristine condition, the same applies to all the Androsaces and those with hairy grey felted leaves are specially pleased, as they hate their leave to be wet for any length of time.

I have never had such a display of alpines at this time of the year before as the rain and hail showers always spoilt the flowers, but not this year, the long spells of sunshine has worked wonders and I have been working overtime with the camera, getting shots of plants that I never had the opportunity to get before.

To give you some idea of growth activity the hedges at the front of he house have been cut twice already and this only the middle of April. The Cyclamen have all but finished flowering for this season apart from a few C. Pupurescens and Repandum; foliage is dying down quickly in spite of my best efforts to keep it going.

Weeding is a daily task as weed seeds germinate quickly in warm weather but are easily kept under control using a hand sprayer filled with roundup. If you get them before they have a chance to get established then the task is a lot easier. The camellias are covering the ground with a carpet of pink as the flowers are falling by the hundred obviously affected by the lack of rain and the high temperatures. I sweep them up and spread the lot underneath the plants close to the stem to rot down and act as mulch just as nature would have it.

Go To Page: 1 2